Mailing-List: contact users-help@httpd.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: users@httpd.apache.org
From: "Joshua Slive" <joshua@slive.ca>
To: <users@httpd.apache.org>
Subject: RE: How do you keep track of logins?
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 21:03:25 -0500
Message-ID: <ELEDJONBOPPAEGANDEEIOEKJCAAA.joshua@slive.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
In-Reply-To: <EGEELNKPHPCMJAOJBEHHGEPNCMAA.lamarts@flash.net>
Importance: Normal


> From: Lamar Seifuddin [mailto:lamarts@flash.net]

> I'm trying to keep track of the number of
> logins:
>
> I'm using the standard mod_auth with .htaccess, etc.
>
> counter.cgi script I wrote, isn't "tied" to login,
> just to the webpage.  I can "refresh" all day long and
> it counts.
>

HTTP, and HTTP basic auth in particular, is a stateless protocol.  There is
no concept of being logged in and logged out.  If your browser sends the
correct password, it gets the resource.  Your browser must send the password
every time.  It just happens that it remembers the password for you so you
don't have to retype it every time.  So in other words, every hit is a
login.

If you need to track unique users, you must use cookies or session ID's
embedded in the URL.

Joshua.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project.
See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info.
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@httpd.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@httpd.apache.org